Post Worlds

          Worlds didn’t quite met my expectations but as Alex Sanna says “Such is Life”... he also says “Aiee-OH” but that has less value in the battle for positive mentality. My prep was awesome. Loved my lines in the pre ride, and warm up was great, although I did have some problems with my trainer at first. On the start line in good time although it was a $hit storm and they just checked you off when you went by and I ended up pretty much 5^th row. I don’t know if I just wasn’t prepared enough to go that hard but I drifted pretty far back at the start but then I picked it up on one section and found myself on Karl’s wheel in around 20^th. I was amazed how good I felt too, I was ready to pass even more people after a huge pile up on this gnarly off camber kicker. I was over and right down the crazy  decent and once I tried to kick out of the bottom I noticed I had lost my chain. Stop, put that back on, there goes 25 people. So I get going again and catch a few guys and then on the second of two steep descents with 90 degree turns I was leaned over a bit too far and with the combination of snagging a rut I ate it and a dutch guy went flying over me. Then since my chain was off I knew something was wrong so I ran it into the pit. Now on my Rocky I had a solid lap and a half picking off all the shredded lone riders with my adrenaline high and making up good time on a fair chain of riders with a canadian in it. If anyone reading this watched my race you would have seen how the leader on the final lap ran the tricky off camber and slipped and fell and it took him 10 seconds at least to get up and it looks like a slow motion video when you watch it? Well I did the same when trying to ride but mine was worse. I tried to counter balance my bike through a rut while holding my bike straight and just slipped out I fell on the hill and slid under the fencing, yes UNDER the fencing and 80% of my body was in the crowd. So a guy started pushing me back out and up the hill. Trying to walk it felt like climbing a rock wall except replace the rock wall with a water slide, it took me realistically 15 seconds but it felt like 3 hours. Once back on my machine I started drilling and re passed a Luxembourg rider and two Austrians. I was alone for a minute then I was in a big opening and saw a few riders about 200m in front of me around a fast section on the outside of the course. I started hammering and when I hopped onto the track I saw them just rounding the bend when all of a sudden a UCI piney clad man jumped in front of me and started waving a red flag and blowing a whistle. I am finished. He pulls me aside along with the few other riders 30seconds behind me, except for the Luxembourg rider who sprinted by. I was calm and surprisingly not frustrated and asked “Is being pulled optional?”. Anyways that rider ended up messing up with the people who where finishing in the top 10 on the last lap and was DSQ. It is pretty demoralizing though when then take you and cut your numbers off. Since it was a short fast course about 30% of the riders were pulled anyways. Karl was close even, 29 seconds, and that was in 40^th place which isn’t a bad result. I think with how I was feeling a top 30 could have been possible if everything would have gone right, but clearly it didn’t. 

When it mattered I was either on the ground, putting my chain on or running. But for Yohan it was a different story, after the race when Alex picked up his bike his chain fell to the ground. It had broken on the last stroke he’d taken but he stopped just before it were to fall off. I can kinda picture it as a video of Yohan racing with a little ticker showing how many pedal strokes he had left and in the sprint he probably had like 12 where everyone else would’ve had like 50 000. Also lucky enough for him his Zipp rear wheel exploded (lost 4 spokes) but it still ran true enough for him to have minimal problems with rubbing. Speaking of incredibly cheaply made expensive weak wheels I had a prime spot on the front row of the finishing straight to see Tim Johnson put power into his cranks and his wheel explode (9 spokes) under the pressure. He now has a broken collar bone and that crash cost him a solid place in the top 10. So I guess if I learned anything here it’s don’t buy Zipps :p. Another fun fact about something at the race was the Junior winner, he was barely selected for the team and ended up winning, pretty good stuff. If anyone watched the Elite race the Canada flag on the bottom right was me :)   

I am still trying to figure out if I will come again next year but if I do I have a whole list ready of things I will need that I didn’t have this year: Reliable Bikes, Huge Mud Boots, A Double Bike Box and some tools! All in all I had a really good time, although I am ready to go home to family, friends and tv without voice over!